The Scrap Olympics have begun!

My name is Diana, and I'm a scrap-aholic. I'll admit it. It's VERY addicting to scrap now that I don't have to drag out 100 pounds of supplies to make a layout. Digital scrapping is perfect for me....I wish I'd discovered it ages ago before I spent so much money on the other stuff! (anybody want to attend a scrap yard sale so I can get rid of my paper stuff?) I've been doing this for about a year and a half I think, and this weekend has been pretty pathetic really. I could be downstairs with my family, watching Star Wars (a movie I'm not fond of, hence my absence)....but I'm up here at my laptop scrapping because at Scrap Matters they're having a Scrap Olympics. WOOHOO! Yep, I'm pathetic.

So anyways.....this week has been typical. Karl's back at school (teachers report a week early of course...his students start tomorrow, which I still think is insanely early for school to be starting!), so we were back into a semi-normal routine with dropping the kids off at daycare and carpooling again. blah. I can't believe summer's over for us already! I feel like I never got a chance to RELAX! :) Alaina and Matthew both started back at their gymnastics classes, and while they were in town on Tuesday night for that, we had a huge storm roll through that knocked out our power. BOO! usually our power doesn't go out....it'll flicker.....and if it actually DOES go out, it won't stay off long. This time, it was off for something painful like 16 hours. Which meant no AC (*sigh*), showers/baths in the dark for the kids (quickly to conserve hot water), nad getting dressed by flashlight and taking a semi-cold shower the next morning for Karl and me. YAY! But it's all fixed now.....that was probably the excitement of the week.

Friday night, Alaina went to a birthday party sleepover at her BFF Isabella's house. I thought it was a huge gathering, but apparently, I'm the only mom crazy enough to invite ALL the girls in the class for a sleepover (11 of which showed up!). This one was just her, Isabella, and Isabella's sisters. Her mom is smarter than me! :) I know she had fun, and insisted on getting Isabella a dress for the first day of school.....and then she had to have the exact same one obviously so they could match!

While Alaina was out of the house Friday night, Karl, me, and the boys went out to dinner at Applebee's. And perhaps it was just a coincidence, but Karl's been sick ever since. I told him it was kharma for us eating out after we said we were going to cut back on eating out! From dinner, we headed to the mall to get Karl a new pair of shoes for work....and since a 2nd pair was half off, I TRIED to find a pair for me, but alas, nothing in my size (grrrrr......stupid big feet)....so Alaina got a cute pair of mary janes instead. From the shoe place, we headed to a couple different stores to get me some new tops. Karl, in his fashion-conscious way, informed me the other day that I needed some new clothes. I still don't understand why Crocs and sweatpants aren't acceptable in the workplace....I LIVE in that!

I hate to shop for clothes. HATE IT. So I avoid it. At. All. Costs. I even dragged my feet going into and out of every store.......blah. I finally ended up with I think 3 shirts and a cardigan (since I"m always cold at work) that are "suitable" for the office. Since I'm only physically IN the office 3 days a week, I was content with that small purchase. If anybody wants to go shopping FOR me, let me know......I now understand why personal shoppers exist. If I could afford one, I'd totally do that since I abhor the whole shopping process. ESPECIALLY the 3-way mirrors. *shudder* I don't know anybody over the age of 21 that likes the 3-way mirrors under flourescent lighting.....seriously, that's a friggin' scary combination right there!

But once our trip to the mall was over, I was happier......I stayed up late doing the speed scrap online. I'm not THRILLED with what I did, but it was a speed scrap....you only have an hour, and they give you specific rules. So this is what I did:

Saturday, we just hung out at home....picked Alaina up from her sleepover, and she of course went straight to her room and crashed for the next 5 hours! Nice to know there was SLUMBERING going on, huh? :P We spent the rest of the day at home. Karl got sick and spent the majority of day in bed. I left him alone. It's much easier that way (ya'll know what I'm talking about with the sick husbands, right?). I spent basically the entire day online at the Scrap Matter's site finishing downloading all the stuff I bought at their big sale Friday night.....and I did a layout for a Random Act of Kindness (you scrap a LO for someone else with their pictures) ,and I'm very proud of it:

This gal is a very popular designer of scrapping products, so me doing a LO for HER was extremely intimidating, and after I volunteered, I thought, "WTH did I just do?". But she emailed me that she "LOVED LOVED LOVED IT", so I take it she was pleased. And then I kept checking the site to see the LO someone else did for me....this one was made by another gal I "know" whos scrapping I really admire......I added the journaling obviously......but cute huh?

And now I'm trying to get my entries done for the scrap olympics events they have going on......maybe SOMEDAY I'll actually win one of these bazillion contests I enter (prizes are always $5 credits, which I could SO easily spend!)........since Karl's still sickly, we've skipped church this morning and I'm determined to finish this layout and then we're gonna have to clean this house. Given the choice between my least favorite activities of shopping for clothes for me or cleaning my house. Gosh, that's a toughy. I hate them both! :P

Oh, and one more layout to share (aside from what's in the slideshow).....my SIL Nicole and I decided to start a weekly 'blessings' scrapbook......one layout a week for a year of all of our blessings. This was week one......I've scrapped (in paper) this picture before, but I like this version even better........since so many of my friends have just had babies, I was pondering what a blessing pregnancy is. So this is my blessing for this week:

And that's about it I think......impatiently waiting for the arrival of little miss Hartley, and sick to death of seeing Mr. Nuts on Kerri's blog (YOU HEAR THAT KERRI? UPDATE!!!)....so i'm signing off for now....